Pages

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dion Phaneuf traded to Maple Leafs

The Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs have pulled off a blockbuster deal.TSN is reporting that Toronto has sent Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ian White and Jamal Mayers to Calgary in exchange for Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom, and 6'6" prospect, defenseman Keith Aulie.

Both teams look to benefit from this deal. The Flames get a couple of forwards for their lineup to address their scoring woes in Stajan and Hagman, as well as a nice replacement in Ian White for the vacancy created on the blueline by the departure of Phaneuf. This deal makes sense for them because of their depth on the blue line but lack of it at forward.

For the Maple Leafs, it looks like they also benefit from this deal. They get the best player in the deal in Phaneuf, and a good role player in Fredrik Sjostrom.

The Maple Leafs also pulled off another deal today.TSN.ca is also reporting that the Maple Leafs have traded struggling goaltender Vesa Toskala (and long time scapegoat in Toronto) and underachieving forward Jason Blake to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

This deal makes sense for Anaheim because they Giguere had lost his starting job to Jonas Hiller, and they will appreciate some depth up front on their scoring lines with the acquisition of Jason Blake.

The Maple Leafs meanwhile hope that Giguere will regain his 2003 Conn Smythe trophy form. Even if he keeps his recent form, this is still an upgrade in goal for the Leafs.

These two deals should benefit all teams involved and do not appear to be an offload of talent for draft picks as one might expect. These are two deals that arguably should improve all teams in the short-term.